Sam Malone coming to a TV near you

Sam Malone will host Sam Malone's Cell Phone Theatre, a 30-minute look at the fun and occasionally bizarre things that Houstonians do with their mobile phone cameras.

Sam Malone will host Sam Malone's Cell Phone Theatre, a 30-minute look at the fun and occasionally bizarre things that Houstonians do with their mobile phone cameras.

Photo: KHOU

Photo: KHOU

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Sam Malone will host Sam Malone's Cell Phone Theatre, a 30-minute look at the fun and occasionally bizarre things that Houstonians do with their mobile phone cameras.

Sam Malone will host Sam Malone's Cell Phone Theatre, a 30-minute look at the fun and occasionally bizarre things that Houstonians do with their mobile phone cameras.

Photo: KHOU

Sam Malone coming to a TV near you

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If all goes according to plan, Sam Malone, the once and perhaps future grand poobah of Houston morning-drive-time radio, may be about to embark on a second career as the Bob Saget of cellular phone video.

Malone at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on KHOU (Channel 11) will host Sam Malone’s Cell Phone Theatre, a 30-minute look at the fun and occasionally bizarre things that Houstonians do with their mobile-phone cameras.

It’s the first of what could become a continuing series on Channel 11 and Malone’s first full-scale venture back into Houston media since he was let go by KHMX (96.5 FM) late last year as Clear Channel Houston was preparing to transfer ownership of the station to CBS Radio.

"This started out as a radio bit," Malone said. "But when you get the production department and the art department and the graphics and music involved, it becomes a freaking monster. It’s gone from a Volkswagen to a Bentley."

Don Graham, Channel 11’s director of programming and production, and producer Chris Nocera are working with Malone on the pilot for the show, which Malone suggested more than a year ago.

Channel 11 solicited videos during Malone’s regular Friday appearances on Great Day Houston, and Graham, Nocera and Malone spent this week compiling the best — or worst — in categories involving messy refrigerators, unusual pets, sexy feet, or not, and musical talent, or not.

"We’ve got people singing karaoke — badly — and people who dress up their pets — one girl has a dog with a Mohawk," Graham said. "That gives us a fun-packed show featuring a lot of things that viewers have sent us."

If it works, it could become the digital successor to America’s Funniest Home Videos, which Saget hosted for so many years on ABC, and its assorted spinoffs.

Malone optimistic

Having already been axed by Clear Channel last year, Malone was a bystander this week as the company eliminated 1,800 jobs nationwide, including a reported 42 at the six stations and other properties it owns in Houston.

"That’s 1,800 people, 1,800 wives and husbands, kids, mortgages, car payments, all going into a tizzy," Malone said. "I feel so badly for them. It’s going to be very difficult for some of them to find a job in an oversaturated market during a difficult period."

Citing his desire to respect his former colleagues during these difficult times, Malone declined to elaborate about his plans other than to say he is "incredibly optimistic" about future prospects in Houston as he sits out the non-compete clause in his contract.

"I’m staying here. That’s a go," he said. "I love morning radio. I just love it. I love talking to people and making people smile and laugh. Television is a whole other world I’m learning about. It’s a different beast with different concepts."

One unfortunate constant of radio, however, is that so many of Malone’s counterparts at Clear Channel stations nationwide have now simply vanished from the airwaves without a chance to do one last broadcast for loyal listeners.

"They should let people say goodbye," he said. "That way, everybody goes home with honor, integrity and credibility intact, and listeners will be thankful to the station.

"We all have to move on. But I can’t stand it when people are axed and wiped off station Web sites as if they never existed. There is nothing wrong with letting someone say goodbye."

Big numbers for inauguration

If you were anywhere near a television Tuesday, chances are you were watching President Barack Obama taking the oath of office at 11 a.m.

Even with the vast majority of Houston residents at work or at school on Inauguration Day, 10 over-the-air and cable news stations drew an audience for the swearing-in that rivaled a Super Bowl audience.

Based on numbers from Nielsen Media Research, almost 750,000 of Houston’s 2.1 million TV households, or a 35.6 rating, were tuned in to one of the 10 channels for the swearing in and inaugural address from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Eighty percent of TVs in use at that time were tuned in to the ceremony.

Channel 11 said its Web site on Tuesday recorded 695,460 page views with 73,515 unique visitors and 32,534 live video streams. Channel 13 declined to provide numbers but said its Web traffic was more than double that for a normal weekday.

Nationwide, Nielsen estimates that 37.8 million viewers watched a portion of the inaugural activities on 17 audiences between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. That was the second-highest on record behind the 41.8 million that watched Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981.

Among the 56 major markets, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., had the largest audience with a 51.2 rating, followed by Washington, D.C., at 47.7 and Norfolk, Va., at 46.7. Markets in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones lagged behind most Eastern points, with Houston checking in at 41st with an average 26.9 combined rating for the seven-hour programming day.